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Richmond 1 Adjusting the Mission Richmond 1 Adjusting the Mission: Women Missionaries, Motivations, and Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand, 1823-1867 Allison Richmond HIST 4903, Steele Seminar Dr. Matthew Schauer May 1, 2020 Richmond 2 Adjusting the Mission: Women Missionaries, Motivations, and Maori in Aotearoa/New Zealand, 1823-1867 On April 12, 1799, several British men, including the accomplished abolitionist William Wilberforce, established the Church Missionary Society (CMS) with the main intentions of advocating for end of the slave trade, promoting social reform within Britain, and spreading the Gospel throughout Britain’s colonies.1 Within the context of promoting Christianity worldwide, the Society primarily used mission schools and education in order to reach indigenous populations.2 In 1822, the Church Missionary Society of England employed Henry Williams and his wife, Marianne Williams, as head missionaries of the CMS station in the Bay of Islands, Aotearoa/New Zealand. The CMS headquarters in London held a celebration for the Williams’ momentous occasion, and Reverend Williams spoke out about his faith in Mrs. Williams as a missionary, stating: With Regard to Mrs. Williams, I beg to say that she does not accompany me merely as my wife, but as a fellow helper in the work. Though it will be, for some time, her chief care to watch over those tender plants which are committed to her immediate charge, yet she will, I trust, be performing therein no inconsiderable duty to the Mission.3 Rather than viewing her as his assistant in the Mission, Reverend Williams thought of his wife as a competent partner and vital agent in missionary service, emphasizing the Church Mission Society’s need for women in evangelism. In this speech, Rev. Williams’ phrase “tender plants” referred to the women and children that fell under Mrs. Williams’ supervision in the mission school, as missions and other colonial efforts supposed that women were more suitable to relate 1 “Our History.” Church Mission Society. Accessed April 3, 2020. https://churchmissionsociety.org/about/our- history/. 2 Tanya Fitzgerald, “To unite their strength with ours: Women and Missionary Work in Aoteroa/New Zealand 1827-45,” The Journal of Pacific History 39 (2004), 148. 3 Marianne Williams and Caroline Fitzgerald, Letters from the Bay of Islands: the Story of Marianne Williams (North Shore, N.Z.: Penguin, 2010), 6. Richmond 3 to, and therefore minister to, indigenous women and children. In turn, women provided a valuable service to the cause of the mission.4 Other male missionaries shared the same sentiments as Rev. Williams. William Williams (Henry Williams’ brother) included extensive accounts from female “missionaries” in the CMS mission in his newsletters on the progress of the mission station, including reports from Mrs. Williams about their arrival and perceptions of indigenous people. In one entry, Reverend William Williams reported on the “precious moment” that Mrs. Marianne Williams experienced upon arrival in New Zealand, when the local indigenous population “hailed the ship” and welcomed her and her family onto the island, illustrating her thrill at the prospect of ministry to indigenous people.5 For women and men, however, the process of evangelism looked a bit different. While the wives of missionaries in the CMS were often not paid for their service or considered “proper missionaries”, they were expected to serve alongside their husbands in a variety of duties and perform functions of their own, such as teaching and supervising indigenous children, nursing and midwifery, and farming and agriculture.6 However, as noted by Henry Williams in his toast, the work of missionary women was crucial to the operation of the mission. Rather than dismissing Mrs. Williams’ account or solely highlighting the experiences of missionary men, Williams’ inclusion of these entries indicates that both male missionaries and Williams’ wider audience back in England thought that the accounts of missionary women were 4 Catherine Hall, “Of Gender and Empire: Reflections on the Nineteenth Century,” in Gender and Empire, ed. Philippa Levine, 46-76 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 61. 5 See William Williams, Christianity Among the New Zealanders: With Six Illustrations (London: Seeley Jackson and Halliday, 1867), 43. This volume by William Williams goes into detail on the culture, practices, and progress of the Church Mission Society in New Zealand, providing accounts from many of the missionaries on testimonies of healing and conversion narratives. 6 Fitzgerald, “To Unite their Strength with Ours,” 147. Richmond 4 of some importance. Although contemporary history has a tendency to define the British imperial project with the famed accomplishments of men, women played an integral role in the British Empire, particularly in missionary work. As such, this history also tends to conflate the motivations of missionary women with those of their husbands. While many missionary women did indeed accompany their husbands in the mission, this is not to say that they always fully conceded to their husbands’ Imperial ambitions. The purpose of this essay is to turn away from the traditional narratives that overlook the voices of these women, and instead view them as agents of their own livelihood. Their important contributions to the field of missionary work demonstrate their essentiality to the cause of imperialism, despite the seemingly contradictory social norms of the time. The social oppression of women was a theme seen throughout the Victorian period, with women lacking access to the same educational opportunities as men, the right to vote, and the notion of “separate spheres,” which relegated women’s activities largely to all matters domestic and related to the family and home.7 The status of being unmarried stigmatized the lives of many women, with domesticity and child rearing seen as the pinnacle of achievement for any middle or upper class woman, thus placing single women in a subservient position within a patriarchal society as well.8 Since the oppression of women played such an integral role in the formation of patriarchy in nineteenth century Britain, this leaves the question, why were women encouraged and expected to undertake sizable responsibility within processes of imperialism, particularly in 7 See Philippa Levine. "Love, Friendship, and Feminism in Later 19th-century England," Women's Studies International Forum 13 (1990): 63-78 for further reading on women’s activism and social norms in Victorian England. 8 Danika Rockett, Single Women in the Borders: Religion and Philanthropy as Paths to Social Action in Victorian Britain, 2012. Dissertation. Richmond 5 missions? Were missionary women motivated by a sense of duty to their nation and imperialism, or was it a personal sentiment of religious obligation? Beginning in the early nineteenth century, Christians and missionaries were establishing mission settlements in New Zealand, such as the previously mentioned Church Mission Society and the London Mission Society, with the aim of converting and assimilating indigenes. Theoretically, missions would promote the commercial and governmental ventures of the British Empire at large by expanding influence and creating more colonial subjects. At the start of the nineteenth century, the white populations of New Zealand and Australia gradually began to grow with the increased convict transportation and programs that encouraged white settlement, such as subsidized travel to these areas, a program that was established after the British imposed more direct rule on the colony in 1840.9 As this migration spiked, so too did conflicts with the Maori people, or the Indigenous communities within Aotearoa/New Zealand. These conflicts ultimately led to the singing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, which granted sovereignty to the British over Maori lands. By reducing their landholdings, the Maori population quickly began to decline, leading to the unprecedented numbers of white people in New Zealand. While missionaries were some of the first British settlers in these areas, they did not necessarily travel to New Zealand with the same goals as those who took advantage of the assisted passage programs, or those who were transported for criminal offenses. By examining the letters and journal entries of Marianne Williams, as well as the writings of male missionaries such as William Yate, William Williams, and Thomas Kendall, one can understand that women were vital to the missionary imperial project in terms of their supposed ability to effectively minister to indigenous women and children. Using the sources of 9 Harper and Constantine, Migration and Empire, 76. Richmond 6 Marianne Williams in particular, as well as shorter excerpts from other missionary women, such as Jane Williams and Maria Coldham, I contend that rather than possessing a sense of duty to Britain and the Crown like their husbands, the journals and letters that these women left behind demonstrate their deep sense of religious conviction to the missionary cause. It is true that missionary women often served alongside their husbands who had imperial ambitions that extended beyond religious duty. However, this has led to contemporary history viewing women’s work in the missions as an extension of her husband’s, rather than viewing the woman as her own agent.10 In addition to illuminating the motivations of these women, this paper will also illustrate the independence that these women exhibited and the work that they carried out on their own accord, rather
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